Well i bought my ASUS G74 (Best Buy Model) and I love my laptop. I am running windows 7 ultimate 64 Bit i just need a bit of help. One is i know i can add 8 more gb of ram for a toald of 16gb. i have seen forum boards saying i can go up to 32gb true or not. Also i want to upgrade both hard drives, i want to know if this model can take a SSD drive and those 12.5mm laptop drives as i dont want to pay an extra 80 bucks just for the smaller one. I am also having problems with my sound after i upgrade the sound drivers so i can use the mic my sound is very low and i have to use headphones just to game or play music. And last but not least my touchpad every now and then jumps around so i have to use a USB mouse.

fuzon1337

04-15-2012, 11:55 AM

Hi there and welcome to the ROG forum :)

EDIT: If you click on the "blue arrows" in the quotes then you will access the threads where I got the info :)

One is i know i can add 8 more gb of ram for a toald of 16gb. i have seen forum boards saying i can go up to 32gb true or not.

Well I spent the AM installing and testing various configs of 4GB SODIMMs and my new 8GB SODIMMs from NCIX. The results are in...

The G74SX and core i7 2630QM **CAN** use 32GB of RAM! Attached are two screenshots (from my point-and-shoot camera) to prove it: one is a shot of my BIOS (v 203) front screen showing the amount of RAM detected by the BIOS, and the second is a shot of memtest+ testing my new sticks. Linux boots fine and happily reports all 32GB to be present and accounted for, and stupid Windows HP of course can see the 32GB but reports only 16GB usable. No matter-its a windows limitation.
Also tested the system with 2x8GB and 2x4GB in the other two slots (total 24GB): works terrific as well in the G74.

I haven't let memtest run through a single whole pass yet, but will be doing the standard 3-pass test this afternoon (testing 32GBs will take several hours) to make sure these sticks are good.

For everyone here who may be interested in the upgrade to 32GB one day, the sticks are Corsair (CMSO8GX3M1A1333C9) 1x8GB DDR3-1333 MHz 9-9-9-24 204 pin. I realize its overkill for most users, but for my purposes with this notebook (data processing and research) it moves the G74 from desktop-replacement to the realm of workstation-replacement.

I had a feeling....the $400 risk was well worth it.

4x4GB Samsung 1333 DDR3 for sale...!

Also i want to upgrade both hard drives, i want to know if this model can take a SSD drive and those 12.5mm laptop drives as i dont want to pay an extra 80 bucks just for the smaller one.

The G74SX can use both SATA II and III drives, but not sure what you mean with 12.5mm laptop drives :S
A antoher HDD that you want to install ?

I am also having problems with my sound after i upgrade the sound drivers so i can use the mic my sound is very low and i have to use headphones just to game or play music.

You can always roll back the driver that you had before in device manager to see if that helps :)

And last but not least my touchpad every now and then jumps around so i have to use a USB mouse.
Right click on computer -> click manage -> then click on device manager -> mouse and other pointing devices. There you will see if you got the Sentellic touchpad or Synaptics touchpad.

Also i want to upgrade both hard drives, i want to know if this model can take a SSD drive and those 12.5mm laptop drives as i dont want to pay an extra 80 bucks just for the smaller one..
I don't know what "12.5mm laptop drives" you're referring to, but like virtually every other laptop, the G74 takes standard 2.5" drives, for both HDDs and SSDs.

And last but not least my touchpad every now and then jumps around so i have to use a USB mouse.
I would recommend the following, to help diagnose whether this is a software or more serious hardware issue:

Optional: update to BIOS v203, if you currently on a previous version (use Easy Flash (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?vdg51lpjqcmrjqv) to update)
Update the ATK Package to v1.0.0014 (http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/Drivers/ATKPackage/ATKPackage_Win7_64_Z100014.zip)
If you have an Atheros WLAN card, update the driver to v9.2.0.470 (http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/Drivers/WLAN/WLAN_Atheros_Win7_64_Z921470.zip) or later
Determine your touchpad manufacturer (in Device Manager)
Completely uninstall the existing touchpad driver
Restart, and allow Windows to install its generic mouse driver
Use the generic driver for a few days and see if the erratic behavior persists
Install the latest version of your touchpad manufacturer's driver
Use the manufacturer's driver for a few days to see if the erratic behavior persists
Optional, but recommended: After a TP driver change/update, do a repair install of the ATK Package (in Control Panel)

If you are still getting erratic behavior after this, I would try a factory restore as a final attempt to rule out a software cause. If the erratic behavior persists under all the various circumstances addressed above, you should probably just return the unit and get a different one.